Stupid Danny
by Smapdi
Summary: A Mindy POV fic, post Desert. Multi chapter, possibly complete unless I get re-inspired.
1. Chapter 1

It was probably the ass grab that did it.

Ok, it was definitely the ass grab, and the hip thrust, and the cheek stroke, and the ohmygod hotness of his lips, because I swore I'd never consider hooking up in a tiny airplane bathroom. And yet that was all I could think of, because there is nowhere else in a plane that one can do what I wanted Danny to do to me right then and there.

Wait. Rewind a minute. Before the sucking of face commenced, I had just spent the better part of an hour writing a fantastic, heartfelt love letter. Ok, transcribing, because it wasn't my heartfelt love that was pouring out in that email. Of course I didn't know it at the time, so that totally excuses it.

I was feeling really good about that letter. In my dream scenario, Cliff would instantly forgive me and meet me at the airport with a sign that said "My Girlfriend Mindy." We would slow motion run towards each other and kiss and Cliff would have one perfect tear rolling down his cheek. It was beautiful. I just had to get through the last few hours of the flight home and our love story would begin again.

What a cool thing it was for Danny to be so helpful! All of a sudden he was coming up with these lovely emotional, even romantic, things to say, and I ate it up with a spoon. So when I wandered to the back to find him some water, his damn "tiniest bit sweet" tonic water, I didn't expect him to join me.

And I sure as hell didn't expect him to kiss me.

Now, I will admit, the thought had crossed my mind a time or ten. Danny has given me a few mixed signals, but in the end I really never thought there was real interest from him. Attraction, sure, I mean I'm pretty irresistible, but you know. It's Danny. Man of stone. It was hard enough to break through to become his friend.

So there I was with my mind in the clouds and fizzy water in my hands when he comes up behind me and I turn around and he's storming towards me. He has that face, and he grabs me, and that's all she wrote. We're kissing, or more accurately, he is softly kissing me and I'm slack jawed and staring. It took like three seconds to even sink in, and by then he had stopped, probably due to my unresponsive fish lips, but I didn't want him to stop. The second kiss was not as gentle, and this time, I was ready for it. Admittedly a little tentative at first but what the hell, someone hands you chocolate cake, you dig in. Holy shit, it was good cake.

If not for the rattle of turbulence and the ping of the seatbelt sign, there's no telling what might have happened, because things escalated very quickly. Lust will do that to you. But that air pocket nearly knocked us off our feet and called a halt to the madness, at least momentarily. The smooth voice over the intercom apologized for the disturbance and directed us to lock it down, so we shakily made our way to our seats.

"You go ahead of me." Danny murmured into my hair as he slipped behind me, and I didn't understand why till he bumped into me.

"OH. Ok..." So we were groping in public but he still had a little modesty. I bit my lip to keep from laughing, as that reaction is rarely appreciated.

Back to the real world. I sat, he sat, we buckled in and rode out the little storm. My heart rate retuned to normal and apparently, so did... everything... with Danny. Yeah, I looked.

In the silence I thought about the entirety of what had just happened. I realized that I had spent so much time sharing with Danny all my feelings about Cliff, as well as some pretty embarrassing stories. All that time I subjected him to that without realizing what I was doing. And I called him mean and selfish. Yikes!

But maybe I was overthinking this. Maybe he just had gotten himself a little worked up and over emotional because of what happened with his father. Yeah, that totally made sense, and I really didn't need to jump to conclusions.

We shot glances back and forth for a few minutes before we were released from our seatbelt restriction. Then he finally spoke.

"Look, I don't... I mean, we aren't... I just..."

Quite the silver tongued devil, that Danny Castellano.

I tried to give him my best supportive face. I had a lot of practice over the last couple of days.

"I don't have any expectations from this, okay?" He could finally form a sentence, and that's what he came up with?

I nodded, more of a "go on" than "I agree," but I guess it was open to interpretation.

"I know that you want to be with Cliff." He wasn't looking at me anymore. "I realized that once this plane landed, everything would change." He exhaled heavily and turned to meet my gaze. "I just needed to know, just once..."

He was giving me an easy out We got caught up in the moment, and neither of us had been thinking clearly, and we could just go back and pretend that nothing had happened.

Yeah, right.

My head was pretty much spinning right off my neck and I had no idea what to do. On the one hand I had Cliff, and who knows how he would react to that letter, but we had a really great relationship up until now. On the other hand, Danny.

"Danny, I... This is sudden."

"For you, yeah. Me, not so much." He smiled a wry half smile that didn't reach his eyes.

"So, it's not just residual emotion from the whole dad thing, then? Because, it's okay if that's what's going on."

Danny looked down and shook his head.

"How long?"

"A while..." He smiled again ruefully. "But look, I'm not blind. I know you don't feel the same, and Cliff is great."

"Yeah, Danny. He freaked out when I just saw Casey. How do you think he's going to feel when he finds out about this? Oh, babe, it's great you didn't cheat with Casey, I'm totally fine with Danny's tongue in your mouth, pressing his boner against you."

"Well don't tell him that!" Danny replied in a strangled tone.

"I can't not tell him, Danny. He already doesn't trust me." Suddenly, I was mad again. Stupid Danny!

"What do you want me to say, Min? You didn't seem too upset at the time. You want me to apologize?"

"No!"

"Then what?" His eyes were glittering, pupils black, and his breath seemed hitched. "What do you want from me?"

Well, shit. I guess that time I was to blame. I just grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him to me. He did this cool little move where he undid his seatbelt and lifted up the armrest all in one motion while his face was all up in my face. It was very sexy. Then both his arms were winding their way around me and hands, hands were everywhere, and I almost climbed in his lap. The cabin was dark and people were resuming their sleep and most of them didn't hear the noises we were trying to make as quietly as possible, which made it even more hot.

So I guess I complicated things a little more.

"Okay. Danny. We have to stop." He just muttered something against my neck, his fingers moving ultra slowly against my skin just above my waistband. "Really, Danny." His response was to gently sink his teeth into my shoulder with a growl before pulling away. I put my hands on either side of his face.

"Can we just slow down here?" I asked him softly. "This is... amazing." And it was, overwhelmingly so, which freaked me out more than a little. I've kissed a fella or two in my day but this was just beyond anything else. Intoxicating. Mind bending. Life ruining.

"It is, huh?" He asked in an oddly shy way for a man whose erection was still digging into my thigh.

"It's more than I can handle right now, Danny. I have a big problem on my hands. Get that grin off your face, that is not what I meant."

"Okay." He grinned.

"I think we should sleep right now and just... wait. I need to rest my brain. We can talk once we've had some time to think."

He nodded and we moved apart. I rested my head on his shoulder and fell asleep till the announcements of our upcoming landing woke me. I couldn't help but smile when I looked down and saw Danny was tightly holding my hand. It was an uneventful landing and we barely spoke, even when deboarding and finding our luggage. We did seem to brush against and bump each other quite a lot.

I planned to go home, regroup mentally, let an afternoon of work take my mind off this strange turn of events. Maybe have a meal with Danny and see where his head was at once we had spent some time out of the heat of the moment. It was a perfectly valid plan.

Until we stepped out of the terminal doors and there he was. No plaintive sign declaring his love, but there just the same, stood Cliff.

Shit.


	2. Chapter 2

I screeched to a halt and froze when I saw Cliff. Danny stopped too, and dropped my extra bag with a heavy thud. He growled something about getting a taxi and left me standing there alone.

"Hey, beautiful." Cliff was walking towards me with a huge grin. I couldn't breathe. I was not prepared to deal with any of this yet. Before I could speak, Cliff had his arms around me and was kissing me. My only thought was of Danny, was he watching, what was he thinking? I pushed Cliff away and glanced at the taxi line. Danny was looking at the ground. I'm pretty sure he had seen us.

"Cliff, what are you doing here?"

"I couldn't wait another minute. I'm so sorry, Mindy. I was, what were your words? Stupid and reckless."

Those weren't my words. I closed my eyes.

"We need to talk."

"I came to take you home, Mindy. We can talk." He grabbed my bags and led me to the car. My stomach was in knots and I was feeling the stress puke impulse rising in my throat. I glanced to find Danny but he was gone.

Cliff started talking the minute we got in the car, telling me how much my letter meant and how he realized what he had lost once I was gone. I let him talk because I couldn't find words.

"Okay, you're way too quiet, babe. What's going on?"

I had to tell him, even though it would be so hard to hurt him again. "Cliff, things have gotten... complicated. You broke up with me because you didn't think you could trust me. I have to be honest now. Something happened..."

"Mindy, stop. I made a decision and I'm in for the long haul here. I don't care what happened. I want to start fresh, a blank slate." He smiled sweetly at me. "C'mon, let's just go to your place and have hot make-up sex."

I'm not going to lie, a huge part of me just wanted to say yes. It was exactly what I had wanted until stupid Danny went and threw a wrench in it all with his stupid hot lips. Now I was just hopelessly confused.

"It's not that simple, Cliff."

"Sure it is." He was giving me weird side glances as he tried to drive and still look at me. "I made a leap of faith here, Mindy. I turned down the apartment. Let's do this."

I just started to cry. The poor bastard thought they were tears of joy for a moment.

We got to my apartment after the rest of that miserable drive and Cliff carried my bags in like a gentleman. I probably shouldn't have let him, but they were heavy. He set them down and kicked the door closed and grabbed me.

"I missed you, babe." He murmured before he kissed me. I felt nothing but awkward, because I was comparing his kisses to Danny's. I wrestled myself free, leaving Cliff confused.

"No, just... no. Cliff, I can't." I collapsed on the couch. Cliff seemed to think I was just being dramatic. He joined me and gave me a hug.

"What is it? Tell me what I can do to fix this."

"Oh, I don't know. Turn back time and not break up with me?" So Danny wouldn't have kissed me.

"Really? You're holding that against me now, after all you wrote?"

"I didn't write it!" I practically screamed at him. He flinched and moved away a little.

"Okay, so you copied it? It's fine, that doesn't matter, if it's how you feel. It is how you feel, right?" Cliff's face looked so hopeful that I nearly forgot about myself for a moment.

"I don't know. It's complicated."

"Mindy, that's a Facebook status, not an emotion."

"Well right now that's the best I can give you. I'm sorry. I need some time." What I needed was Xanax. And Danny. God. What did he do to me? How could I turn to my best friend for advice when he was the problem? What a mess.

Once he was gone, I grabbed a bottle of wine and curled up to cry. Yes, having too many men deserves just as much of a cry fest as having none, and so what if it was 10 am! After the cry came the nap and then the phone calls. After the fifth call from the office, I finally answered and told Betsy I had jet lag and couldn't come in due to exhaustion and barfing. She bought it.

Danny didn't. I got a curt text shortly afterward.

"Cut the happy reunion short and come do your job."

Well, so much for what he said on the plane about no expectations. He was mad. Great. Once more accused of something I didn't do, and besides that, I didn't owe him anything. So I took a shower and headed to work, wine buzz long slept off so I was extra cranky.

"Hey, Dr. L, you made it!" Morgan greeted me with a hug. "How is Cliff..." He gave me a big wink.

"He's fine, I'm sure." I rushed past him into my office because I was not going to get into it with Danny at work - too many prying little ears. Checking my schedule, I found that I didn't even have any appointments scheduled until the following afternoon. Goddamn it, Danny. What if I had been having a romantic rendezvous with Cliff? He had no right to demand I come in just because he wanted us apart.

Angry texts can't be overheard.

"I came in for no reason, Danny. What the hell."

It was a while before my phone buzzed with a response.

"So?"

"So what?"

"That's what I meant. So what."

Grrrr... Okay, if he was gonna be stupid, I might as well mess with him.

"I was curled up all cozy and warm in my bed, Danny. I would have enjoyed a little more time there."

"Not my problem."

Oh, but it could be, if you'd stop being an ass.

"Fine, Danny. I'm sure I can resume that activity later. With your blessings, of course."

He didn't respond. I thought perhaps he'd come crashing into my office, but he didn't. I started to feel pretty shitty. Playing with him wasn't any fun if he didn't join in, and I guess I took it too far. I was about to amend my text when I heard his voice in the lobby announce he had an emergency at the hospital.

I knew that would take him out of commission for a few hours, and I didn't have any work to do, but I needed a way to figure out this bizarre love triangle. So, shopping. That at least got me out of the funk and I got some paperwork finished from before the trip and then I went home and back to bed. No wine, no whining, just me and my jammies and my thoughts. It was actually less painful than I expected.

Nobody can just decide to feel how they feel, and sorting out feelings is a pretty tough job too. Ultimately, though, it came down to this - when I close my eyes and think of the one person I can't stand the thought of losing, besides Beyoncé, whose face do I see?

I texted him.

"Come over when you're free. We need to talk."

Now I just had to wait for the reply.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's note - I added some spoiler discussion at the end - no specifics, but if you are staying completely spoiler free, avoid the bolded bit after the chapter. No spoilers in the story. **

I didn't get a text, or a call. I was starting to think he wasn't coming until I heard a pounding at the door.

"Hey."

Danny was standing there with a petulant expression on his face. He walked past me into the living room, where he rubbed his hands together and then crossed his arms. "You wanted to talk, so talk."

"Okay, chill out, angry little man. Sit down, let me get you a drink."

"No, I'm good. Let's just get this done." He was bouncing on the balls of his feet.

"Get what done, Danny?" I grabbed a couple of beers and returned to the living room.

"This... talk. Whatever." He clenched his jaw and finally met my eyes. He was closed off, guarded, had begun to shut me our already. It gave me pause. I grabbed his arm and pulled him onto the couch with me.

"Danny, what the hell? Why are you so angry at me?" I knew why. I just had this perverse desire to make him work a little harder.

"I'm not angry." The muscle in his jaw was pulsing as he looked at the floor.

"Well, you sure are acting like a brat." He flashed a look at me then back down. "Anyway. I'm sure you figured this out, but Cliff wanted to get back together. Your letter worked, Danny. He gave up his apartment and wants to move in with me." I left out the part about wanting make-up sex. I'm not that cruel.

"Okay. Great. Thanks for the update. You coulda just, uh, texted that" He nodded and started to stand up. I pulled him back down.

"Danny. Some things you have to say in person."

He exhaled heavily and turned to me. "Don't worry about it."

"I told him no."

He stared at me for a moment. I squeezed his arm.

"You told him no."

I nodded.

"So..."

"So stop acting melodramatic!" I shoved his shoulder hard. He responded with a kiss. Man, can that guy kiss. And his skills weren't limited to 30,000 feet in the air, either. But there was still a bit of a complication.

"Danny. Danny, hang on." I panted. He held my face, brushing a thumb over my parted lips, his eyes never leaving mine. I briefly considered taking it into my mouth, because hot! But we were getting ahead of ourselves. I pulled away.

"Seriously though. It's still kind of a mess with him. I haven't officially... I didn't tell him about us."

"Us..." Danny murmured, leaning in to run his lips along my neck. God, he was making this so difficult.

"I just told him I needed time. So there's still a... complication."

Danny pulled back, looking annoyed. "So you really didn't tell him anything at all."

"Well I just... Danny, be fair. You asked me to make a decision and I haven't even had 24 hours to process all of this."

"I didn't ask you for anything." He said quietly. "You know how I feel."

"Do I? Really? Because you're suddenly crazy impulsive and emotional? How do I know by tomorrow you won't go back to the same old closed off Danny that I know and..."

Shit shit shit.

"And what?"

Well, I wasn't going to say love. I mean, if I hadn't caught myself, because I do love Danny. But I love cupcakes too, but I wouldn't have a cupcake for a boyfriend. Okay, maybe I would, but that's neither here nor there. I was scared. Danny was my closest friend and, well, I don't have the greatest track record.

"And you might break my heart, Danny."

His face softened. "And you might break mine." He replied with a crack in his voice. "But I'm willing to take that risk, and that's... that's a lot, for me. You do it all the time."

"But not with you. You're always there for me, Danny. But if we give this a try and it doesn't work out... Do you get what that means to me?"

"The same as it means for me, I guess. Min, I can't promise you nothing will go wrong. I'm human, you're human, we just... What do you want me to say?"

I took his hands. "I know, Danny. It's still scary. Let me tell Cliff it's over, for good. And then whatever this is... we can figure that out."

He nodded. "I guess it's for the best that you close that door before you open a new one." He was gazing at me with as smoldering look, running his eyes over my body. It was making me want to do very bad things with him.

I bit my lip and gently stroked his wrist. Damn, he had sexy hands. "Maybe it would be ok if we just cracked the door open a little bit? Just to take a peek?"

"I don't know if I can do that." His fingers started to stray up my arm. "I'm a little... impatient... I tend to just fling doors open and walk right through." His other hand was snaking around my waist, pulling me in.

"You're such a liar, Danny. Impatient? How long did it take you to kiss me?"

"Too long." He growled, tucking his hand behind my head before he tilted my head back to kiss me. I couldn't resist, sighing against his lips. He laid back against the couch and somehow I was suddenly straddling him, his hands gripping my ass and pressing me against him. I ran my hands up his shirt and he did the same, hot fingers stroking my back.

It was blissful and probably would have ended with us in a pile of naked if not for the twin buzzing of our pagers going off. That meant an emergency delivery, so we were literally saved by the bell, only lacking Mario Lopez.

We regretfully untangled our bodies and I headed to get dressed. I heard him faintly curse.

"It's for the best, Danny." I told him as we headed to the hospital. "Maybe we can actually, I dunno, go on a date before you see me naked?"

"That ship already sailed, sweetheart." He said with his casual lopsided grin.

"That may be so, Danny, but I've got moves you've never seen." I did a little hip shake as we boarded the elevator. Julia Roberts, eat your heart out.

He grabbed my hips and pulled them flush against his and kissed me.

"I'm counting on it."

**Spoiler talk in 3**

**2**

**1**

**Okay - I wrote most of this chapter before the recent sides came out and it kind of knocked me off my game. I was planning to continue for a few more chapters but now I'm really not feeling it... Mostly because if what allegedly happens DOES happen it sort of kills the sentiment of this chapter and if you've been spoiled you'll know why. So I'm feeling a little cranky towards the writers for ruining my fairy tale, LOL! I am sure alls well that ends well.**


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